Govruud Huuchinhuu, an ethnic Mongolian human rights activist, writer and cyber-dissident, has been missing since 27 January, when she was supposedly released from a hospital in Tongliao (通辽), in Inner Mongolia, where she was being treated for cancer.

A member of the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance (SMDA), Huuchinhuu had been under house arrest since November for urging fellow Mongolian dissidents to get ready to welcome the release of the SDMA’s president, Hada, who should have been freed on 10 December on completing a 15-year jail sentence but is probably still being held by the Chinese authorities.

As many as 20 policemen kept Huuchinhuu’s home under surveillance while she was under house arrest. When she was taken to hospital with severe headaches, the police surveillance continued in her hospital room.

Huuchinhuu has written many essays criticizing the Chinese government’s ethnic policies in Inner Mongolia. She is also active online and used to edit three websites – www.nutuge.com, www.ehoron.com and www.mongolger.net – which were closed by the authorities.

Reporters Without Borders urges the Chinese government to shed light on the whereabouts of both Huuchinhuu and Hada and to stop claiming that dissidents have been released when in fact they are the victims of forced disappearance or house arrest, or are being held in military camps.